gamescom 2015 is shaping up to be the largest for Blizzard Entertainment, with the 6th WoW Expansion being revealed on August 6th, 9 am PDT. We've put together this guide to everything you need to know about Blizzard at gamescom, and will be updating it throughout the event with links to our panel coverage.

In addition, Perc and Panser will be streaming their reactions and post-announcement analysis over on http://www.twitch.tv/wowhead right after the WoW event is finished! Tweet your expansion thoughts with the hashtag #WowheadXpacHype and we may read it on the show!

So far we've gotten major Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch news from the press conference--as well as Overwatch suddenly showing up in the Battle.net launcher. There was apparently no Warcraft news revealed, but Mamytwink reports that Tom Chilton said there will be a trailer and some videos at Thursday's announcement.

gamescom Basics

gamescom takes place between August 5 - 9th, 2015. August 5th is for trade visitors and the media; August 6 - 9 is for the public.

Schedule

Below is the full schedule--click on the image to enlarge it. Activities this year include costume and dance contests, live music by Songhammer, quizzes with prizes, and livestreams with developer interviews.

If you are watching from home, http://www.blizzgc.com/ will have a livestream 18:00 CEST Thursday-Saturday, and at 17:00 CEST on Sunday. Several days will feature panels covering Blizzard games:

Thursday, August 6 at 18:00 CEST: World of Warcraft expansion announced

Friday, August 7 at 18:00 CEST: exclusive Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm content and developer interviews

Saturday, August 8 at 18:00 CEST: exclusive Legacy of the Void and Overwatch content and developer interviews.

Sunday, August 9 at 17:00 CEST: exclusive World of Warcraft content and developer interviews.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft will see the new expansion revealed, the famous Dance Contest, and several dungeon and raid races. In addition, the Warcraft movie statues of King Llane and Orgrim Doomhammer from SDCC are on display.

Dungeon and Raids

World first guild Method and top German guild set sail for fail are battling it out in several dungeons and raids! Below are the specifics from Method's site:

Method

The world’s largest video game convention, gamescom, will open its doors this Thursday (August 6th - 9th) and we're excited to be amongst the thousands of attendees! Method is going to race the guild set sail for fail in Challenge Modes and Mythic raids live on the Blizzard stage! We will also be raiding live from the ROCCAT stage.

If you would like to say 'Hi' then your best chance to do so will be at the outside area next to the Blizzard stage after the raid on Saturday. See below for our complete schedule with locations.

Overwatch

gamescom 2015 is the first time Overwatch can be tried out in Europe.

The Overwatch livestream will take place on Saturday, August 8th at 18:00 CEST, with Game Director Jeff Kaplan, VFX Supervisor Jeff Chamberlain, Senior Game Designer Michael Chu, and Senior Game Producer Matthew Hawley present.

Also, Overwatch has been added to the Battle.net launcher! It's still not playable but it's a great teaser:

New Hero: Lúcio

A new hero, Lúcio, was revealed at the Blizzard Press Event. He's a DJ whose music is a symbol for positive social change. Growing up poor in Rio de Janeiro, he found music was a way to let people forget their troubles for a little while. He became a successful musician, but when the Vishkar Corporation started to exploit his neighborhood, he stole their sonic technology and converted it into a tool to rally the people to drive out the Vishkar. His music skyrocketed in popularity and he realizes he can change the world for the better.

His abilities are:

Sonic Amplifier (LMB/RMB): Lúcio can hit his enemies with sonic projectiles or knock them back with a blast of sound.

Crossfade (Shift): Lúcio continuously energizes himself—and nearby teammates—with music. He can switch between two songs: one amplifies movement speed, while the other regenerates health.

Amp it Up (E): Lúcio increases the volume on his speakers, boosting the effects of his songs (12 second cooldown).

New Maps

Two new maps have been revealed: Numbani and Volskaya Industries. Blizzard released a video below, as well as social mediateasers in the weeks leading up to gamescom.

Overwatch Cosplay

Overwatch cosplay is also big at gamescom. Lightning Cosplay and Kamui Cosplay will be at the Blizzard booth Thursday-Saturday dressed up as Widowmaker and Symmetra, and they'll be giving talks about how they made their costumes on August 6th at 16:15 CEST and August 7th at 13:00 EST. If you're interested in cosplaying as an Overwatch character, Blizzard has released Reference Kits of each character's armor and weapon details.

In 2013, Lighting Cosplay took home 1st prize at the BlizzCon Costume Contest as the Diablo Barbarian, and Kamui Cosplay won the Grand Prize as a Wizard Protoss and was honored with Bâton de sorcellerie cristallin de Kamui.

Hearthstone

Hearthstone will be available on PC and tablet, including some new cards from the upcoming expansion, The Grand Tournament. We've been getting several cards revealed per day, across various fansites, so it's likely we'll see even more revealed during gamescom.

The Hearthstone livestream will take place on Friday, August 7th at 18:00 CEST, with Executive Producer Hamilton Chu, Senior Game Designer Mike Donais, and Senior Director of Business Operations Walter Kong present. On the livestream, 5 new Grand Tournament Cards were revealed.

Each day (Thursday - Saturday at 11:30, Sunday at 10:30 CEST), you can see some of your favorite Hearthstone personalities, including Kripparrian, sling cards in show matches at the Blizzard booth.

At the Blizzard press event on Wednesday, they revealed more Grand Tournament cards and the Joust mechanic! They also announced Ranked Play Mode bonus rewards--players with higher ranks receive better rewards at the end of the month.

Diablo

While there is no Diablo III livestream event, Lead Character Artist Paul Warzecha will bring the world of Sanctuary to life with live 3D modelling exhibitions on the main stage. These sessions will take place at 18:00 CEST on August 7th and 8th, and 15:00 CEST on August 9th.

Heroes of the Storm

The Heroes of the Storm livestream will take place on Friday, August 7th at 18:00 CEST, with Game Director Dustin Browder and Lead Game Producer Kaeo Milker present.

On August 6th (14:00 CEST) and August 7th (13:30 CEST), ten famous gaming YouTubers will face off each other in YouTuber Show Matches. Then on August 8th (13:00 CEST) and August 9th (14:00 CEST), two top teams will battle in the Eternal Conflict.

Purple slashes have been added to the sides of the Heroes of the Storm home page, leading people to speculate that new heroes were coming.

At the Blizzard press event, they did just that! They revealed three new heroes and one new map.

Rexxar is a unique ranged warrior, who calls on his ferocious companion Misha to follow him around the battlefield and attack his foes.

Artanis, leader of the Protoss, will be the first StarCraft warrior.

Infernal Shrines is a three-lane Diablo-themed Battleground with shrines. Players can activate these shrines and summon a Punisher who spawns with affixies similar to rares in Diablo - Arcane, Frozen, Mortar. This Punisher will then push the lane and hunt down enemy heroes.

In addition, the Convention Exclusives first seen at SDCC 2015 will also be on sale, as well as recent additions to the Gear Shop:

Below is the complete gamescom Shop Product Preview. If you spend €50 or more at the shop, you’ll also receive a free Hearthstone oversized cloth bag. Click on the images to enlarge them:

There is also a special online sale at http://gear.blizzard.com/. From August 5-17, you'll get free global shipping on all orders that are $50 or more.

#BlizzGC2015 Contests

Blizzard is holding a giveaway on social media for gamescom. If you enter in your first name, last name, email, and country on Warcraft's facebook, you could win any of the following:

1 Overwatch Tracer Statue

1 Diablo Chess Set

10 Alliance Warcraft Movie Posters

10 Horde Warcraft Movie Posters

1 Heroes of the Storm Hoodie

1 Hearthstone Beach Towel

1 Hearthstone Pint Glass (Set of 4)

1 Hearthstone Coaster (Set of 4)

1 Hearthstone Swirl Mug

1 Lil’ Murk-Eye Murloc Plush

1 Zergling/Baneling Reversible Plush

1 StarCrafts Zergling Plush

1 Faerie Dragon Plush

1 Mur’Ghoul Murloc Plush

1 Frostwolf Cub Plush

1 Lil’ Hogger Plush

1 World of Warcraft Whelpling Plush (Crimson)

1 Lil’ Chen Pandaren Plush

1 Lil’ Stitches Plush

Blizzard has also revealed the 10 finalists for the #BLIZZGC2015 contest, and voting is open for the grand prize at http://www.blizzgc.com/. Over the past six weeks, players submitted images via social media around different themes--Friends, Epic, Fun, Battle, Cute, BlizzardIRL. If you want to see all the entries, visit http://www.blizzgc.com/, go to Vote, and click on "Older Posts."

Commentaire de FrostVI3n

Commentaire de Alelurien

Commentaire de UndeadTank

I'm hyped about the WoW xpac, but I think the Lúcio reveal was the best!

Commentaire de Random0223

on 2015-08-05T12:11:04-05:00

(AWSOOOME :D)³!

I'm pretty excited about this new xpac... I wonder what it's going to be about...

Commentaire de lankybrit

on 2015-08-05T12:58:12-05:00

Can't wait to find out what's in store at 9am tomorrow.

Commentaire de Dragonian

on 2015-08-05T13:27:51-05:00

That's a reaaaaaaly nice guide

Commentaire de Shemsuhor

on 2015-08-05T13:45:39-05:00

Since there has been so much discontent over WoD, no matter what the new xpac turns out to be, I think it will be pretty well received as long as it doesn't involve more orc-centric story lines. Can't wait to hear about it! And I'm glad they will apparently be showing a cinematic and maybe other videos. I was worried they were just gonna give the title and a few, limited details.

Commentaire de UndeadTank

on 2015-08-05T13:45:51-05:00

I will be so upset if the next Xpac focuses on Orcs again. I am so tired of Orcs and horde centered Xpacs. I play horde and I'm tired of it. Let's have an Xpac were we help the Titans / Makers fight against the old Gods / Old Ones. That would be awesome!

Commentaire de ErisiAlleria

on 2015-08-05T13:59:09-05:00

Fantastic write-up as per the norm Perculia :)

Commentaire de Iceveiled

on 2015-08-05T14:26:13-05:00

And the next xpac is: Warlords of Draenor 2: continue the fight" !

*shoots self in face*

Commentaire de Lactox

on 2015-08-05T14:41:55-05:00

You're probably right and in this expansion we discover it was all just a dream Garrosh was having whilst his face was caved in during SoO.

Commentaire de SilverSapphire

on 2015-08-05T15:07:24-05:00

They give the Starcraft Warrior slot to Artanis, who has only been a flying unit hero until now, instead of to Fenix... sigh.

Commentaire de linktoheaven

on 2015-08-05T15:10:33-05:00

WHYYYYYYYY IS ARTANIS WARRIOR!

Seriously... I thought they made Tassadar (the one of two protoss who mastered both Light and Dark side of psy energy and total badass) into freaking support because they didnt want two Templar Assassins and wanted to give more "cool and praise" to Artanis since he is new protagonist and now they turn him into warrior? Why not make Fenix warrior and Artanis assassin?

I... i just dont know what to think anymore... i guess now they can add other important characters from Legacy of the void protoss as freaking minions... I give up... Im going back to LoL and Dota, screw this...

Commentaire de Lockagh

on 2015-08-05T15:52:46-05:00

Can't wait to play as Rexxar again, and that new Uther skin...glorious.

Commentaire de jarycu

on 2015-08-05T16:43:31-05:00

And the next xpac is: Warlords of Draenor 2: continue the fight" !

Actually, they'll reveal that they moved 6.3 from being a patch into a full xpac at 7.0. We'll have to rebuild the entire portal in Tanaan, at a rate of 1 brick per week, until we hit the achievement (100 Bricks Placed!) and the portal opens up. It'll take around 2 years (hence the 100 bricks ach), so they have plenty of time to make more Farmvil..err...content for us.

:P

I'm excited too, but I main a warlock and I'm supposed to be snarky. I can't wait for a reason to re-sub to the game again.

Commentaire de Kchefwow

on 2015-08-05T17:30:21-05:00

Great article as usual! Can't wait to watch it unfold

Commentaire de wisedada

on 2015-08-06T04:26:32-05:00

The nerd's Paradise is here!

Commentaire de unklebobb

on 2015-08-06T04:32:20-05:00

Can't wait until they reveal it. It will be awesome to have an xpac in under 2 years time.